Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on October 23, 2024
| Photo Credit: CHINA Reuters

China on Monday (November 18, 2024) said it stands ready to deliver on important common understandings reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the recent BRICS summit leading to a thaw in the relations frozen for over four years due to military standoff at Eastern Ladakh.

“Recently, President Xi Jinping met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the margins of the BRICS summit held in Kazan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a media briefing here while responding to a question on the likelihood of a meeting the two leaders on the sidelines of G20 summit in Brazil.

“China stands ready to work with India to deliver on the important common understandings between the leaders of the two countries, step up communication and cooperation and enhance strategic mutual trust,” he said, adding that he has no information on the specifics of the meeting of the leaders and officials.

At their Kazan meeting, the two leaders endorsed the India-China agreement on patrolling and disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and issued directions to revive various bilateral dialogue mechanisms, signalling attempts to normalise ties that were hit by a deadly military clash in 2020.

In the nearly 50-minute meeting held on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit at Kazan, Mr. Modi underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquility in border areas and that mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity should remain the basis of the relations.

Also read | The LAC agreement, the détentes and the questions

Mr. Xi said China-India relations are essentially a question of how the two large developing countries and neighbours, each with a 1.4-billion-strong population, treat each other.

China and India should maintain a sound strategic perception of each other and work together to find the “right and bright path” for big, neighbouring countries to live in harmony and develop side by side, he said.

The ties between the two Asian giants nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.

On Oct 21, India and China firmed up an agreement on patrolling and disengagement of troops along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, in a breakthrough to end the over four-year standoff.

Both leaders also instructed the Special Representatives on the India-China boundary question to meet at an early date and to continue their efforts to address the issues related to the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

India’s Special Representative for the dialogue is NSA Ajit Doval while the Chinese side is headed at the talks by Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The Special Representatives mechanism was constituted in 2003. The two sides held 20 rounds of talks since then. The last meeting was held in 2019.